Digital letters, photos may leave no trace for future

9:12 PM,
Nov. 3, 2013

Ray Broadhead

Written by

Ray Broadhead

Let's journey to the year 2113. Imagine an archivist searching to learn more about an organization that is more than 100 years old. What will the archivist find from this decade? Will any records be in a form that will be discernible? What about correspondence between members of the organization?

I wonder if our present time period will be lost to archivists, just as the Native Americans oral history is lost to us. At least we have some wonderful photographs of Native Americans from the 19th century. What will happen to the photographs of the 21st century? Will they be in a printed form? Will ...